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Adventure Repositioning Feb 12-17 - My Thoughts


HLWIser

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I'm back from Adventure's first cruise post drydock! Unfortunately, I did not take as many pictures as I had planned - my greatest apologies!! I ended up leaving my phone in the stateroom the entire time, but on the Adventure of the Seas - past, present, and future cruisers Facebook page, many of the other passengers posted lots of pics of the ship if you are interested.

I am a bit of a rare cruiser as I have been on 12 RC cruises but none in the last five years (except this one). So, I have some thoughts on what I experienced and how it differed from years past. I'm not sure if I just don't remember some things or if things have changed since 2013, but I did definitely notice some differences that I'll touch on below.

Overall thoughts: 8/10: Amazing!! I had the BEST time, and five days flew by way too quickly.

Embarkation: 5/10: Okay.. so... we got to the ship around 10:30. We flew by security and checked in the C & A line. We boarded the ship right away. No waiting, no lines. That was amazing. However, I am not sure what happened with the cards, but either they had a large defective batch of cards OR the printer was not able to handle the high volume of printing (I never really got a clear answer), but when I walked onto the ship where they scan your card, mine wasn’t working. There were two other people to the side that had the same issue. They had to reprint our cards at Guest Services while we just stood on the deck waiting, watching other people scan in and walk onto the boat. I was there for maybe 15 minutes when the lady told me to just go to guest services to get another printed. She did not give me my old one. I got to Guest Services (almost completely empty- no lines!) and the girl was so confused at my story. She asked how I got on the ship and if I had even made it through security if I had no card.. then she got a little irritated and said I should have waited because they were on the way to where I was standing with my card. She printed me a new one anyway and said it should work. Well, it didn’t. Lol. I had to go BACK to guest services after I went to the Windjammer because the bartender said my drink package was not scanning correctly. ANYWAY – after that, it worked fine, but it was a pretty sour way to start a vacation, especially since none of them really seemed to know what was going on. GOOD NEWS HOWEVER: They had the room ready when we got on the ship (11:15 or so).

Food 8/10: Honestly, this was the best food I've ever had on a RC ship. In the past, I think food was rather mediocre, but on this one, Windjammer and Main Dining room got high points from me. The Windjammer (7/10) was pretty basic, but had a large selection and seemed to have a good "flow" with all sides being open. I enjoyed breakfast the most, as they always had grits, eggs, rice, fruit, etc, so no day looked the same. We did not do any specialty besides Johnny Rockets on Valentines Day- it was just okay. My salad was just lettuce with some fried chicken on top, and my boyfriend's burger was way too greasy - even for a cheeseburger. LOL. Our waiter did only charge us for the Junior Cruisers rate (6.95 each instead of 9.95), so that was nice. The Main Dining room was incredible. My favorite meals were the Caprese Salad, the Tiger Shrimp, Lobster, and Duck a la orange. The Cherries Jubilee and Baked Alaska are always a favorite too. Our waiter/ assistant waiter Maria and Dewa were THE BEST. I have never had that great of service before. I loved them so much.

Drinks 6/10: Bar service was absolutely horrible. Is it always like this? I want to say the entire ship had less than 100 kids, and there were a ton of adults, especially youngish (20s-40s), so they just might not have been prepared for the high volume of adults at all venues. In the Main Dining Room, it sometimes took until midway until our entrée to get our FIRST drink. Viking Crown/ Blue Moon was also horrible. The pool bar on the sea days was always packed. The worst might have been Imperial Lounge. I'm talking standing in line for 30 minutes for one drink. Boleros was a little better, Champagne bar was also better, Schooner bar was better at some times than others. Basically, if I wanted a drink at nighttime I either had to be prepared to stand in line for 30 mins or call the cocktail waiters over after only a few sips of my current drink. HOWEVER, quality of the drinks was 9/10. Heaviest pours were at Schooner, Blue Moon, Boleros, and the Casino (imagine that?) We definitely utilized our drink package. Between the two of us, for 5 days, we had over 90 drinks… and I don’t even think I’m that heavy of a drinker. I enjoyed many Miami Vices, Lava Flows, Titos & Soda, Titos & Redbull (for those late nights in Blue Moon).

Entertainment 10/10: I LOVED THE ENTERTAINMENT ON THIS CRUISE! They had a great variety of gameshows, comedy, ice skating, dancing, Karaoke, etc. We went to some type of gameshow every night in Imperial. Funny story- my boyfriend’s brother in law won the Belly Flop, Word’s Sexiest Man, and him & I’s team won the quest – he was a crowd favorite, lol. The whole ship I’m pretty sure thought he was my husband, but our significant others are not as outspoken as we are so we are the ones that did the participating!

Stateroom 6/10: I never met our stateroom attendant. I have no idea who he was lol. My boyfriend did meet him and said he was very friendly. Our stateroom bathroom was not the cleanest (dark hairs in the shower, dirt/ an old champagne cork under the toilet area when we arrived?). We had a balcony room on deck 8 – room 8630. The boat was really rocking on days 2 and 3, and there was a “popping” sound in the balcony door when it would rock. I could never figure out what it was, but I’ve never heard that before and it was pretty loud. We tried to open the door and figure out where it was coming from but couldn’t.

Other thoughts:

One thing I noticed far more than other cruises in the past is the constant approaching/ selling of extra services like specialty restaurants and the drink package. The first day we were approached constantly, in every venue, trying to get us to purchase something. I’ve seen this before but never this bad.

The boat was rocking BAD on Night 2, All of Day and Night 3. They had to drain and close the pools.

We LOVED Zumba on the pool deck on all the sea days :) so fun!

My highlight of the cruise was the Silent Dance party in Blue Moon. It was so much fun.

We did not get close with any bartenders this cruise. In the past, I always have chatted with them and gone to favorites, but this time, there were different bartenders every day and night at each venue so it was hard to do that.

The Cruise Director, Casey Pelter, was only seen at the “big ticket” items – Belly Flop, Love and Marriage Gameshow, The Quest, and that’s really it. I also saw him at the Crown and Anchor event in Imperial, but I did not see him any other time. I would have liked to. I LOVED his staff though! Neal, Lorenzo, Maya, Prince – they were all amazing and we got to know them pretty well since we participated in everything.

St. Thomas Mountain Top was absolutely beautiful. I wish we would have spent more time there. I have never seen something like that in my life – I am going to have to go see that again.

Hurricane damage is still very apparent in St. Thomas, St. Maarteen, and San Juan, PR.

The ship is gorgeous. All of the public areas do not show signs of age, in my opinion. They are fresh, new clean, and I enjoyed it so much, we booked ANOTHER voyage on her for September 31- August 7 for New England and Canada
?

I have decided I am the biggest fan of the Voyager class. I have been on Oasis & Allure 2 times each, and while they are amazing, I think they might be a little too big. Adventure never felt crowded unless a show had just let out and people were walking to get somewhere else, or at the bars when people wanted a drink. The pool deck was never so crowded that you couldn’t find a chair. Adventure was just the perfect size – I was worried I had been “spoiled” by Oasis, but honestly, it was my favorite size of all of their fleet.

One last thought – they have GREATLY improved the Café Promenade food options. The vegetarian pizza- which I think was just cheese pizza with maybe 3 leaves of spinach added- was actually delicious. The cheese tasted like REAL CHEESE! Their sandwiches and salads/ snacks were also pretty good for a quick bite after a few drinks at Blue Moon or in the middle of the day after the pool.

I can't wait to sail on her again!!!

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13 minutes ago, HLWIser said:

I'm back from Adventure's first cruise post drydock! Unfortunately, I did not take as many pictures as I had planned - my greatest apologies!! I ended up leaving my phone in the stateroom the entire time, but on the Adventure of the Seas - past, present, and future cruisers Facebook page, many of the other passengers posted lots of pics of the ship if you are interested.

I am a bit of a rare cruiser as I have been on 12 RC cruises but none in the last five years (except this one). So, I have some thoughts on what I experienced and how it differed from years past. I'm not sure if I just don't remember some things or if things have changed since 2013, but I did definitely notice some differences that I'll touch on below.

Overall thoughts: 8/10: Amazing!! I had the BEST time, and five days flew by way too quickly.

Embarkation: 5/10: Okay.. so... we got to the ship around 10:30. We flew by security and checked in the C & A line. We boarded the ship right away. No waiting, no lines. That was amazing. However, I am not sure what happened with the cards, but either they had a large defective batch of cards OR the printer was not able to handle the high volume of printing (I never really got a clear answer), but when I walked onto the ship where they scan your card, mine wasn’t working. There were two other people to the side that had the same issue. They had to reprint our cards at Guest Services while we just stood on the deck waiting, watching other people scan in and walk onto the boat. I was there for maybe 15 minutes when the lady told me to just go to guest services to get another printed. She did not give me my old one. I got to Guest Services (almost completely empty- no lines!) and the girl was so confused at my story. She asked how I got on the ship and if I had even made it through security if I had no card.. then she got a little irritated and said I should have waited because they were on the way to where I was standing with my card. She printed me a new one anyway and said it should work. Well, it didn’t. Lol. I had to go BACK to guest services after I went to the Windjammer because the bartender said my drink package was not scanning correctly. ANYWAY – after that, it worked fine, but it was a pretty sour way to start a vacation, especially since none of them really seemed to know what was going on. GOOD NEWS HOWEVER: They had the room ready when we got on the ship (11:15 or so).

Food 8/10: Honestly, this was the best food I've ever had on a RC ship. In the past, I think food was rather mediocre, but on this one, Windjammer and Main Dining room got high points from me. The Windjammer (7/10) was pretty basic, but had a large selection and seemed to have a good "flow" with all sides being open. I enjoyed breakfast the most, as they always had grits, eggs, rice, fruit, etc, so no day looked the same. We did not do any specialty besides Johnny Rockets on Valentines Day- it was just okay. My salad was just lettuce with some fried chicken on top, and my boyfriend's burger was way too greasy - even for a cheeseburger. LOL. Our waiter did only charge us for the Junior Cruisers rate (6.95 each instead of 9.95), so that was nice. The Main Dining room was incredible. My favorite meals were the Caprese Salad, the Tiger Shrimp, Lobster, and Duck a la orange. The Cherries Jubilee and Baked Alaska are always a favorite too. Our waiter/ assistant waiter Maria and Dewa were THE BEST. I have never had that great of service before. I loved them so much.

Drinks 6/10: Bar service was absolutely horrible. Is it always like this? I want to say the entire ship had less than 100 kids, and there were a ton of adults, especially youngish (20s-40s), so they just might not have been prepared for the high volume of adults at all venues. In the Main Dining Room, it sometimes took until midway until our entrée to get our FIRST drink. Viking Crown/ Blue Moon was also horrible. The pool bar on the sea days was always packed. I'm talking standing in line for 30 minutes for one drink. Boleros was a little better, Champagne bar was also better, Schooner bar was better at some times than others. Basically, if I wanted a drink at nighttime I either had to be prepared to stand in line for 30 mins or call the cocktail waiters over after only a few sips of my current drink. HOWEVER, quality of the drinks was 9/10. Heaviest pours were at Schooner, Blue Moon, Boleros, and the Casino (imagine that?) We definitely utilized our drink package. Between the two of us, for 5 days, we had over 90 drinks… and I don’t even think I’m that heavy of a drinker. I enjoyed many Miami Vices, Lava Flows, Titos & Soda, Titos & Redbull (for those late nights in Blue Moon).

Entertainment 10/10: I LOVED THE ENTERTAINMENT ON THIS CRUISE! They had a great variety of gameshows, comedy, ice skating, dancing, Karaoke, etc. We went to some type of gameshow every night in Imperial. Funny story- my boyfriend’s brother in law won the Belly Flop, Word’s Sexiest Man, and him & I’s team won the quest – he was a crowd favorite, lol. The whole ship I’m pretty sure thought he was my husband, but our significant others are not as outspoken as we are so we are the ones that did the participating!

Stateroom 6/10: I never met our stateroom attendant. I have no idea who he was lol. My boyfriend did meet him and said he was very friendly. Our stateroom bathroom was not the cleanest (dark hairs in the shower, dirt/ an old champagne cork under the toilet area when we arrived?). We had a balcony room on deck 8 – room 8630. The boat was really rocking on days 2 and 3, and there was a “popping” sound in the balcony door when it would rock. I could never figure out what it was, but I’ve never heard that before and it was pretty loud. We tried to open the door and figure out where it was coming from but couldn’t.

Other thoughts:

One thing I noticed far more than other cruises in the past is the constant approaching/ selling of extra services like specialty restaurants and the drink package. The first day we were approached constantly, in every venue, trying to get us to purchase something. I’ve seen this before but never this bad.

The boat was rocking BAD on Night 2, All of Day and Night 3. They had to drain and close the pools.

We LOVED Zumba on the pool deck on all the sea days :) so fun!

My highlight of the cruise was the Silent Dance party in Blue Moon. It was so much fun.

We did not get close with any bartenders this cruise. In the past, I always have chatted with them and gone to favorites, but this time, there were different bartenders every day and night at each venue so it was hard to do that.

The Cruise Director, Casey Pelter, was only seen at the “big ticket” items – Belly Flop, Love and Marriage Gameshow, The Quest, and that’s really it. I also saw him at the Crown and Anchor event in Imperial, but I did not see him any other time. I would have liked to. I LOVED his staff though! Neal, Lorenzo, Maya, Prince – they were all amazing and we got to know them pretty well since we participated in everything.

St. Thomas Mountain Top was absolutely beautiful. I wish we would have spent more time there. I have never seen something like that in my life – I am going to have to go see that again.

Hurricane damage is still very apparent in St. Thomas, St. Maarteen, and San Juan, PR.

The ship is gorgeous. All of the public areas do not show signs of age, in my opinion. They are fresh, new clean, and I enjoyed it so much, we booked ANOTHER voyage on her for September 31- August 7 for New England and Canada
?

I have decided I am the biggest fan of the Voyager class. I have been on Oasis & Allure 2 times each, and while they are amazing, I think they might be a little too big. Adventure never felt crowded unless a show had just let out and people were walking to get somewhere else, or at the bars when people wanted a drink. The pool deck was never so crowded that you couldn’t find a chair. Adventure was just the perfect size – I was worried I had been “spoiled” by Oasis, but honestly, it was my favorite size of all of their fleet.

One last thought – they have GREATLY improved the Café Promenade food options. The vegetarian pizza- which I think was just cheese pizza with maybe 3 leaves of spinach added- was actually delicious. The cheese tasted like REAL CHEESE! Their sandwiches and salads/ snacks were also pretty good for a quick bite after a few drinks at Blue Moon or in the middle of the day after the pool.

I can't wait to sail on her again!!!

YAAAAY! This is AWESOME feedback - I'm SO EXCITED!!! 

I'm hoping that with our cruise, some of the holdup at the bars will be somewhat alleviated by the fact that it is a port heavy itinerary, and I know a lot of people opt out of drink packages. 

My cabin is on deck 8 as well (interior promenade), but a lot of our other party members have balcony cabins on deck 8. Did they appear to be refreshed with the new furniture as with other staterooms?

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1 minute ago, KLAconQueso said:

YAAAAY! This is AWESOME feedback - I'm SO EXCITED!!! 

I'm hoping that with our cruise, some of the holdup at the bars will be somewhat alleviated by the fact that it is a port heavy itinerary, and I know a lot of people opt out of drink packages. 

My cabin is on deck 8 as well (interior promenade), but a lot of our other party members have balcony cabins on deck 8. Did they appear to be refreshed with the new furniture as with other staterooms?

Hi, Kayla! I bet you are getting excited! I am so jealous - hope you enjoy :)

Our stateroom definitely had new carpet & a new chair (no couch as it was a connecting room w/ a door, so no room for couch). It smelled new and looked new!

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3 minutes ago, HLWIser said:

Hi, Kayla! I bet you are getting excited! I am so jealous - hope you enjoy :)

Our stateroom definitely had new carpet & a new chair (no couch as it was a connecting room w/ a door, so no room for couch). It smelled new and looked new!

Thanks!!! I know we will - I'm so glad to hear you had a great time! 

I also have to say I agree with your points on Oasis class - we spent two weeks on Allure for our honeymoon and while it was a great time, the class feels just too big to us and you basically never see the ocean. I am really looking forward to trying out Voyager class, as currently Radiance class stands as our favorite. 

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I was also on this cruise and agree with pretty much everything mentioned here. I boarded later in the day and had no issues with my card so they must of fixed it.

There were some quite rough seas. I enjoyed it but my girlfriend was struggling a bit. 

The cruise director staff were very good. I enjoyed all the game shows, especially the Majority Rules one where I won my sweet N* bag in a bag haha. 

I felt the service on this cruise was not as good as on Freedom over Thanksgiving. Getting a drink was quite a process at times. 

Half the hot tubs were not actually hot. The ones in the Solarium were nice though.

The ports of call were damaged pretty bad. Maho beach on St Maarten was particularly badly damaged. All the locals were happy that the big ships were coming back though. 

My biggest regret was not taking a longer cruise. 5 days was over way to quick. 

 

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4 hours ago, ellcee said:

I feel like the slow service in the Main Dining room is a thing many people complain of. I know it was an issue for me (Adventure '16) but I quickly learned to get my drink before or have the bottle of wine to bring with me.

I always brought a glass of wine with me,  and then ordered before it was half gone.   Service was better on freedom than on my adventure cruise where the bar service was pretty nonexistant.  Jane

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11 minutes ago, Deedeelynn said:

Went ahead and booked the August 31- September 7 , 2018 on Adventure to New England/Canada. We also have a Promenade on deck eight! Looking forward to sailing on this cruise out of Bayonne! No flying, easy drive for us!!

Yay! We will have to say hello and become cruise buddies! Looking forward to it :) I am so excited to see a little something different/ out of the ordinary for us.

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16 minutes ago, melski94 said:

Did you do anything in St. Maarten?  I'm struggling on what to do there next month.  We are booked on Adventure in 2019 and looking forward to it.  Thanks for the review! 

We got off and took the water taxi to the island! We ate at one of the restaurants right on the beach and rented a beach chair and umbrella for $10. It was okay - they definitely come up the entire time and try to sell you stuff, even while laying on the beach chairs! Others in our group did the rum double decker tour bus. They really enjoyed it. They said the French side of the island is still closed. They also said the airplane beach was really cool, but still had a lot of damage (and no umbrellas and chairs). Hope this helps!! :) 

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1 hour ago, HLWIser said:

We got off and took the water taxi to the island! We ate at one of the restaurants right on the beach and rented a beach chair and umbrella for $10. It was okay - they definitely come up the entire time and try to sell you stuff, even while laying on the beach chairs! Others in our group did the rum double decker tour bus. They really enjoyed it. They said the French side of the island is still closed. They also said the airplane beach was really cool, but still had a lot of damage (and no umbrellas and chairs). Hope this helps!! :) 

Thanks. Do you know which island/beach?  I've read about the aggressive sellers on the beach which I'm hoping to avoid.  Was the beach reasonably clean?  Have kids in the group so the tour bus gets a bit hard.

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2 minutes ago, melski94 said:

Thanks. Do you know which island/beach?  I've read about the aggressive sellers on the beach which I'm hoping to avoid.  Was the beach reasonably clean?  Have kids in the group so the tour bus gets a bit hard.

It was the one right off the water taxi.. I think the Great Bay beach is what it was called. It was clean.. but the buildings right along the coastline were still damaged. They had broken windows/ roofs blown off. It was definitely cleaned up & functional, but not anywhere near where I've seen in the past (years ago). There was a family right next to us on the beach chairs with kids from ages 4-12 or so. They played in the ocean and seemed to have a good time :) I found some pics taken in the same area we were recently here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147347-d2356032-Reviews-Great_Bay_Beach-Philipsburg_Sint_Maarten_St_Martin_St_Maarten.html#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=301838928

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21 hours ago, TheStigggg said:

I was also on this cruise and agree with pretty much everything mentioned here. I boarded later in the day and had no issues with my card so they must of fixed it.

There were some quite rough seas. I enjoyed it but my girlfriend was struggling a bit. 

The cruise director staff were very good. I enjoyed all the game shows, especially the Majority Rules one where I won my sweet N* bag in a bag haha. 

I felt the service on this cruise was not as good as on Freedom over Thanksgiving. Getting a drink was quite a process at times. 

Half the hot tubs were not actually hot. The ones in the Solarium were nice though.

The ports of call were damaged pretty bad. Maho beach on St Maarten was particularly badly damaged. All the locals were happy that the big ships were coming back though. 

My biggest regret was not taking a longer cruise. 5 days was over way to quick. 

 

Well hello there! Glad you also enjoyed.. We played the Majority Rules game but did not do as well.. LOL! The bag in a bag was quite a fun gift.. were you there when they were giving away highlighters at the Finish the Lyric gameshow? That's the only one we did not enjoy as much since that little kid was trying to cheat the whole time. haha. We didn't get a chance to try the hot tubs but I heard others say the same - that they weren't really hot. This was the 2nd worst "rocking" I've ever had. Back on Independence in 2009, we had 18-20 ft waves and they made us stay in our rooms for a few hours!

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Thanks for posting this review. Great job with discussing this in detail!

On 2/19/2018 at 1:56 PM, HLWIser said:

Bar service was absolutely horrible. Is it always like this? I want to say the entire ship had less than 100 kids, and there were a ton of adults, especially youngish (20s-40s), so they just might not have been prepared for the high volume of adults at all venues. In the Main Dining Room, it sometimes took until midway until our entrée to get our FIRST drink. Viking Crown/ Blue Moon was also horrible. The pool bar on the sea days was always packed. The worst might have been Imperial Lounge. I'm talking standing in line for 30 minutes for one drink. Boleros was a little better, Champagne bar was also better, Schooner bar was better at some times than others. Basically, if I wanted a drink at nighttime I either had to be prepared to stand in line for 30 mins or call the cocktail waiters over after only a few sips of my current drink.

I'm curious about your bar experience, primarily because you mention standing in long lines. 

A crowded bar near the pool on sea day is not unheard of, but "30 mins" wait is really long to wait for anything. Is this a literal 1800 second wait, or are you making a generalization that it felt that long?  (Not trying to insult you or anything, just trying to get a better picture of what you experienced).

Waiting a long time for a drink in the MDR is, unfortunately, typical. They've experimented with different options but the bottom line is the rise of the drink package has shined a light on the slim bar service in the MDR.

Service at a bar or lounge is usually not that bad.  Like I said earlier, there can be peak times but it's just a matter of getting the bartender's attention and getting your order in.  Maybe 10 minutes? More often than not I just walk to another bar nearby if I can't get someone's attention within a minute or two.

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58 minutes ago, Matt said:

Thanks for posting this review. Great job with discussing this in detail!

I'm curious about your bar experience, primarily because you mention standing in long lines. 

A crowded bar near the pool on sea day is not unheard of, but "30 mins" wait is really long to wait for anything. Is this a literal 1800 second wait, or are you making a generalization that it felt that long?  (Not trying to insult you or anything, just trying to get a better picture of what you experienced).

Waiting a long time for a drink in the MDR is, unfortunately, typical. They've experimented with different options but the bottom line is the rise of the drink package has shined a light on the slim bar service in the MDR.

Service at a bar or lounge is usually not that bad.  Like I said earlier, there can be peak times but it's just a matter of getting the bartender's attention and getting your order in.  Maybe 10 minutes? More often than not I just walk to another bar nearby if I can't get someone's attention within a minute or two.

Okay, admittedly I may have been a bit dramatic. 30 mins is quite a long time. Pool bar was maybe more of a generalization.. :) haha, I would say more around 10-12 minutes or so. Maybe 15 at sailaway party, which is to be expected. The Imperial Lounge did take around 25 minutes on two nights if I remember correctly. It was the worst there. We were halfway through the gameshow before my boyfriend came back with the first drink!

In the MDR, it did seem to get a little better as the week went on, but I could see how they are waiting for bartenders to make them for all the tables so they are a bit backlogged. Other bars.. probably 10 minutes max - more like 5 on average. For some reason they would serve me faster than my boyfriend.. not sure if that's saying something or not. I forgot to mention the Solarium bar had the most bartenders and only took around 2-3 mins.. I apologize for the overgeneralization - waiting for alcohol can do that to me, apparently... :9_innocent:

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3 hours ago, HLWIser said:

It was the one right off the water taxi.. I think the Great Bay beach is what it was called. It was clean.. but the buildings right along the coastline were still damaged. They had broken windows/ roofs blown off. It was definitely cleaned up & functional, but not anywhere near where I've seen in the past (years ago). There was a family right next to us on the beach chairs with kids from ages 4-12 or so. They played in the ocean and seemed to have a good time :) I found some pics taken in the same area we were recently here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147347-d2356032-Reviews-Great_Bay_Beach-Philipsburg_Sint_Maarten_St_Martin_St_Maarten.html#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=301838928

Thank you!  That is the beach that I'm looking at and its good to hear about it.

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8 hours ago, HLWIser said:

Well hello there! Glad you also enjoyed.. We played the Majority Rules game but did not do as well.. LOL! The bag in a bag was quite a fun gift.. were you there when they were giving away highlighters at the Finish the Lyric gameshow? That's the only one we did not enjoy as much since that little kid was trying to cheat the whole time. haha. We didn't get a chance to try the hot tubs but I heard others say the same - that they weren't really hot. This was the 2nd worst "rocking" I've ever had. Back on Independence in 2009, we had 18-20 ft waves and they made us stay in our rooms for a few hours!

Yes! The Finish the Lyric show was awesome until they kept letting the kid stay around. We both found that annoying haha. 

I think I got spoiled on my last cruise. Freedom was super smooth. 

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17 hours ago, HLWIser said:

The Imperial Lounge did take around 25 minutes on two nights if I remember correctly. It was the worst there. We were halfway through the gameshow before my boyfriend came back with the first drink!

Yea that's nuts, although it's definitely the outlier.  Still, not a great experience.

17 hours ago, HLWIser said:

I apologize for the overgeneralization - waiting for alcohol can do that to me, apparently... :9_innocent:

No worries at all! It's so hard to get the context of any comment online since we cannot hear how you're saying it.  Thanks for taking the time to share your report and clarify what happened!

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On 2/19/2018 at 6:30 PM, ellcee said:

I feel like the slow service in the Main Dining room is a thing many people complain of. I know it was an issue for me (Adventure '16) but I quickly learned to get my drink before or have the bottle of wine to bring with me.

I rarely go into the MDR without a drink already in hand as well

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/19/2018 at 1:56 PM, HLWIser said:

I'm back from Adventure's first cruise post drydock! Unfortunately, I did not take as many pictures as I had planned - my greatest apologies!! I ended up leaving my phone in the stateroom the entire time, but on the Adventure of the Seas - past, present, and future cruisers Facebook page, many of the other passengers posted lots of pics of the ship if you are interested.

I am a bit of a rare cruiser as I have been on 12 RC cruises but none in the last five years (except this one). So, I have some thoughts on what I experienced and how it differed from years past. I'm not sure if I just don't remember some things or if things have changed since 2013, but I did definitely notice some differences that I'll touch on below.

Overall thoughts: 8/10: Amazing!! I had the BEST time, and five days flew by way too quickly.

Embarkation: 5/10: Okay.. so... we got to the ship around 10:30. We flew by security and checked in the C & A line. We boarded the ship right away. No waiting, no lines. That was amazing. However, I am not sure what happened with the cards, but either they had a large defective batch of cards OR the printer was not able to handle the high volume of printing (I never really got a clear answer), but when I walked onto the ship where they scan your card, mine wasn’t working. There were two other people to the side that had the same issue. They had to reprint our cards at Guest Services while we just stood on the deck waiting, watching other people scan in and walk onto the boat. I was there for maybe 15 minutes when the lady told me to just go to guest services to get another printed. She did not give me my old one. I got to Guest Services (almost completely empty- no lines!) and the girl was so confused at my story. She asked how I got on the ship and if I had even made it through security if I had no card.. then she got a little irritated and said I should have waited because they were on the way to where I was standing with my card. She printed me a new one anyway and said it should work. Well, it didn’t. Lol. I had to go BACK to guest services after I went to the Windjammer because the bartender said my drink package was not scanning correctly. ANYWAY – after that, it worked fine, but it was a pretty sour way to start a vacation, especially since none of them really seemed to know what was going on. GOOD NEWS HOWEVER: They had the room ready when we got on the ship (11:15 or so).

Food 8/10: Honestly, this was the best food I've ever had on a RC ship. In the past, I think food was rather mediocre, but on this one, Windjammer and Main Dining room got high points from me. The Windjammer (7/10) was pretty basic, but had a large selection and seemed to have a good "flow" with all sides being open. I enjoyed breakfast the most, as they always had grits, eggs, rice, fruit, etc, so no day looked the same. We did not do any specialty besides Johnny Rockets on Valentines Day- it was just okay. My salad was just lettuce with some fried chicken on top, and my boyfriend's burger was way too greasy - even for a cheeseburger. LOL. Our waiter did only charge us for the Junior Cruisers rate (6.95 each instead of 9.95), so that was nice. The Main Dining room was incredible. My favorite meals were the Caprese Salad, the Tiger Shrimp, Lobster, and Duck a la orange. The Cherries Jubilee and Baked Alaska are always a favorite too. Our waiter/ assistant waiter Maria and Dewa were THE BEST. I have never had that great of service before. I loved them so much.

Drinks 6/10: Bar service was absolutely horrible. Is it always like this? I want to say the entire ship had less than 100 kids, and there were a ton of adults, especially youngish (20s-40s), so they just might not have been prepared for the high volume of adults at all venues. In the Main Dining Room, it sometimes took until midway until our entrée to get our FIRST drink. Viking Crown/ Blue Moon was also horrible. The pool bar on the sea days was always packed. The worst might have been Imperial Lounge. I'm talking standing in line for 30 minutes for one drink. Boleros was a little better, Champagne bar was also better, Schooner bar was better at some times than others. Basically, if I wanted a drink at nighttime I either had to be prepared to stand in line for 30 mins or call the cocktail waiters over after only a few sips of my current drink. HOWEVER, quality of the drinks was 9/10. Heaviest pours were at Schooner, Blue Moon, Boleros, and the Casino (imagine that?) We definitely utilized our drink package. Between the two of us, for 5 days, we had over 90 drinks… and I don’t even think I’m that heavy of a drinker. I enjoyed many Miami Vices, Lava Flows, Titos & Soda, Titos & Redbull (for those late nights in Blue Moon).

Entertainment 10/10: I LOVED THE ENTERTAINMENT ON THIS CRUISE! They had a great variety of gameshows, comedy, ice skating, dancing, Karaoke, etc. We went to some type of gameshow every night in Imperial. Funny story- my boyfriend’s brother in law won the Belly Flop, Word’s Sexiest Man, and him & I’s team won the quest – he was a crowd favorite, lol. The whole ship I’m pretty sure thought he was my husband, but our significant others are not as outspoken as we are so we are the ones that did the participating!

Stateroom 6/10: I never met our stateroom attendant. I have no idea who he was lol. My boyfriend did meet him and said he was very friendly. Our stateroom bathroom was not the cleanest (dark hairs in the shower, dirt/ an old champagne cork under the toilet area when we arrived?). We had a balcony room on deck 8 – room 8630. The boat was really rocking on days 2 and 3, and there was a “popping” sound in the balcony door when it would rock. I could never figure out what it was, but I’ve never heard that before and it was pretty loud. We tried to open the door and figure out where it was coming from but couldn’t.

Other thoughts:

One thing I noticed far more than other cruises in the past is the constant approaching/ selling of extra services like specialty restaurants and the drink package. The first day we were approached constantly, in every venue, trying to get us to purchase something. I’ve seen this before but never this bad.

The boat was rocking BAD on Night 2, All of Day and Night 3. They had to drain and close the pools.

We LOVED Zumba on the pool deck on all the sea days :) so fun!

My highlight of the cruise was the Silent Dance party in Blue Moon. It was so much fun.

We did not get close with any bartenders this cruise. In the past, I always have chatted with them and gone to favorites, but this time, there were different bartenders every day and night at each venue so it was hard to do that.

The Cruise Director, Casey Pelter, was only seen at the “big ticket” items – Belly Flop, Love and Marriage Gameshow, The Quest, and that’s really it. I also saw him at the Crown and Anchor event in Imperial, but I did not see him any other time. I would have liked to. I LOVED his staff though! Neal, Lorenzo, Maya, Prince – they were all amazing and we got to know them pretty well since we participated in everything.

St. Thomas Mountain Top was absolutely beautiful. I wish we would have spent more time there. I have never seen something like that in my life – I am going to have to go see that again.

Hurricane damage is still very apparent in St. Thomas, St. Maarteen, and San Juan, PR.

The ship is gorgeous. All of the public areas do not show signs of age, in my opinion. They are fresh, new clean, and I enjoyed it so much, we booked ANOTHER voyage on her for September 31- August 7 for New England and Canada
?

I have decided I am the biggest fan of the Voyager class. I have been on Oasis & Allure 2 times each, and while they are amazing, I think they might be a little too big. Adventure never felt crowded unless a show had just let out and people were walking to get somewhere else, or at the bars when people wanted a drink. The pool deck was never so crowded that you couldn’t find a chair. Adventure was just the perfect size – I was worried I had been “spoiled” by Oasis, but honestly, it was my favorite size of all of their fleet.

One last thought – they have GREATLY improved the Café Promenade food options. The vegetarian pizza- which I think was just cheese pizza with maybe 3 leaves of spinach added- was actually delicious. The cheese tasted like REAL CHEESE! Their sandwiches and salads/ snacks were also pretty good for a quick bite after a few drinks at Blue Moon or in the middle of the day after the pool.

I can't wait to sail on her again!!!

Glad you had an AWESOME  Cruise! Any chance you have a Cruise Compass to share? Thanks ?

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